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LETTER FROM MR BOTTS 



HousK OP Representativks, 

January 29, 1848. 

To the Editors of the Whig : 

Gentlemen : Your correspondent from this city, who is a most worthy and 
estimable, but sadly mistaken gentleman, and who, I apprehend, from the 
character of his communications, is rather too credulous for the political atmo- 
sphere about Washington, has, I perqcive, in a letter bearing date the 23d in- 
stant, and published in the Whig of the '27th, represented to you, and through 
you to my constituents, that Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, and myself, 
are the only two representatives from the South, together with a few from th? 
West, opposed to the nomination of Gen. Taylor. Now, I do not mean to eay 
who Mr. Clingman, or any body else, is for or against; each gentleman caa 
answer for himself as he sees fit. But I do mean to say, that your correspon- 
dent has been led into a most egregious error, if he supposes that the friends 
of Mr. Clay in Congress, from the South and West, (I mean those who orefer 
his nomination as well as his election,) are limited to two, or twenty; but it 
has been bv such errors of calculation tiiat public opinion abroad has been man- 
ufactured, as to the true condition of things in Washington. 

That I stand alone, of the Virginia delegation, in expressing my preference 
for Clay, is true. That I regret not having the support of any one of my col- 
leagues is equally true. They, no doubt, are honestly reflecting their owa 
views, and what they believe to be the views and wishes of their constituent*. 
So am I. But if I stood alone in Congress, or th.- nation, upon this question, 
alone would I continue to stand, tmmovetl and unshnken. 

I am not only a stern and inllexihie Whig mys.-lf upon ! i re- 

present a stern and indexible Whig district. I need no •■•' t.. 

retain me In place, and if I did I should not get them. Nor shall i lo-.t t !,-..' 
support by any other means, than by persuasion, that I represent faithfully 
what I believe to be the true interests of the country. Other gentlemen, who 
are representing decidedly Democratic, or doubtful districts, are but reflecting 
the true condition of those districts, perhaps, by supporting a doubtful, or "no- 
party" candidate. 

I have been laboring for twenty odd years in this great Whig cause, for the 
triumph of my principles, and the principles of the party with which I have 
been associated; with what zeal and success let my own district, and other*, 
answer. I cannot, (let it please or offend whom it may,) / will not, be brought 
to the confession, that my struggles and eflbrts against the contending party 
have been factious, and stimulated only by a de>ire to put the tns out, and the 
outs in, by giving in my adhesion to" a candidate whose principles are un- 
known to me and to you. 

Political life has lost many of its charms for me. The only gam I have de- 
rived from it has been a name for honesty and devotion to principle, which I 
am not yet prepared to sacrifice, by yielding my principles to the custody of 
one, whose policy, if elected, is veiled in secrecy and mystery. 

J. Sc G. S. GideoD, prinMn. 






If Gen. Taylor is a '■^no-party candidate,'^'' which is the only position he has 
yet assumed, then I am not of his party; for I am a party man, and that party 
is the Whig party. I have nothing to ask, and I want nothing of Mr. Clay or 
Gen. Taylor, or any other Executive, and I will not do what I would regard 
as a surrender of my principles, to make any man President; and, therefore, 
1 cannot advocate the nomination of a gentleman who has never filled a politi- 
cal position, who comes fresh from the tented field, heralded only by his mili- 
tary achievements, and whose political views are carefully concealed as weU 
from his friends as his opponents. 

While I am not indifferent to the domestic policy of our Government, I look 
with a much more anxious eye to our foreign policy. For the present a far 
more important question is presented — one that overshadows and absorbs all 
others: I mean the Mexican war, and the objects for which it is to be prose- 
cuted. 

I am unalterably opposed to the subjugation of Mexico and to the annexa- 
tion of any part of the Mexican territory, and will support no man for the Pre- 
sidency who is in favor of admitting the Mexican race to an equal participation 
in the administration of our free institutions. Nay, more than that, I can sup- 
port no man who is not known to be opposed to it. I believe that the subju- 
gation of Mexico, and its annexation to the United States, (which is now the 
object avowed,) will decide the fate of this Union; and I think it matters little 
how soon it shall be dissolved, when that scheme of infatuation and madness 
shall have been accomplished. And am I asked, at such a time, and in such 
a crisis of our fate, to discard a wise, practical, experienced statesman, who 
commands the confidence and esteem of every true Whig throughout the 
broad limits of the land, to take up a soldier from the field, flushed with vic- 
tory, and whose trade is war — whose opinions upon this great question are un- 
known to me and to you — from whom we have not had the slightest intimation 
of a purpose or a wish — only because he comes recommended as committed to 
no principles and to no jjolicy, beyond his own will and judgment. 

" Throw physic to the dogs — I'll none of it." 
I have had enough of your no-party men. 

Let me ask one question: If Gen. Taylor is elected as a "no-party" candi- 
date, will he prove a "no-party" President? If he should, then he will not 
suit me, or any other Whig. If not, would he not disappoint those who elected 
liim? If a majority of the people are so dissatisfied with the principles and 
measures of both the great parties of this country as to elect a President belong- 
ing to neither, could he select a Whig Cabinet, and adopt Whig measures, 
without a betrayal of the trust confided to him by those who elected him.? Or, 
in other words, if he is elected upon the ground that he wiU not avow himself 
a Whig, and commit hijnself to Whig policy, would he not be as fully justified 
in selecting a Locofoco as g, Whig Cabinet, and in adopting Locofoco as Whig 
|)olicy? Must he not, of necessity, have either a "no-party" or divided Cab- 
inet, and would he not have to compromise all his measures, or take a little 
liore, and a little there, from each, or deceive those who elected him? If so, 
all 1 hav(! to say is, that my services cannot be demanded in any such cause- 
If we are to have him as a Whig President, k't us also have him as a Whig 
<:andidate, or else we may look for a disorganization of the VV hig party. 

1 was not born a VVhig, as some gentlemen claim; but I have lived a Whig, 
and a Whig I exp(!ct to die. 

If Gen. Taylor, whose military services I hold in high apj)reciation, shall so de- 
velop his ])riiiciples as to secure to himself the nomination of a National Conven- 
tion, (which, in his present position, I regard as impossible,) he shall notonly have 
my vote, but my active service, be it worth little or much. But, as matters 



stand at present, "with all the lights now heforc me," csprcially from thr Rirat 
Whig region of the country, [which I think your corresiKnidi-nt him not con- 
sulted,] and without whose aid it is impossible! for us to succeed, I am not only 
satisfied that Mr. Clay is the most available candidati', but the only une with 
whom success is certain. 

1 have reason to believe Mr. Clay has lost no strength in those State** thai 
he carried in 1844, and that he is greatly strengthened in many that he then 
lost — especially in New York, whicii our friends assure us is beyond the jxns- 
sibility of a doubt, to say nothing of New Hampshire, (of which many of our 
friends are confident,) Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, together with Pennsylvania, 
which may be carried by selecting a suitable man to place on his ticket — t-ay 
either Scott or Clayton. With these views, I shall do as I believe my con- 
stituents will do, not give him up for any man of doubtful principle.^, and of 
more doubtful success. 

When 1 say I feel confident that Mr. Clay can be elected, I know I shall be 
answered, "-.so you thought in 1844." True, I did — so did we all — but that i- 
no reason we should be deceived again; it is, on the contrary, the best reaxcin 
why we should not be. I am only rendered the more cautious in my caicvda- 
tions by that unexpected and disastrous defeat. 

The Whigs of my ow^n district will recollect the predictions of the laint- 
bearted a year ago as to my own success; they spoke then, as now, of th«* 
want of av'ailability. The result speaks for itself; and so it will in this caise. 
The same causes that operated to swell my majority so far beyond all former 
calculation, will operate in the next Presidential election to swell the majority 
of Mr. Clay. He will not only not have the Catholic excitement, the foreign 
influence, the Native American party, the annexation of Texas, Sec, t«-., l!cc.. 
to operate against him, but they will all work in his favor; and, most of all, this 
wicked and horrible war, and the ruinous condition of the country, which 
will be plainly spread before every man's eyes before the election comes on, 
will swell his triumph, in my belief, beyond all calculation that his most san- 
guine friends have yet made; and if the Whig party are sincere in their ex- 
pression of preference for him, my advice to them is, to hold on to him a.s their 
only sheet-anchor, for the conservative principles of Whiggery. 

At all events, let us wait the action of a National Convention. It will be^ 
time enough for us, who prefer him, to give up ]\Ir. Clay, when the Wliigs of 
the nation, in grand council assembled, shall recommend General Taylor to u-* 
as a proper and most available candidate. Until then I shall stick fa.**!, and 
remain true to the old National Republican faith. 

Respectfully, 

JOHN M liO'lTS. 



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